Feeling lucky

This month, since St. Patty's day is a part of the spectacle, my assistant and I decided to do a Fame and Fortune theme and focus on books that deal with that topic.  Our board, the luck of the Irish.

As many know, we are a genre based library and one of our themes is Fame and Fortune.  We highlight books there that deal with being famous; books about actors, musicians, teens with a famous family, etc.  A lot of them are girly chick lit, with a focus on LA drama, but, they read it.

We decided to pull titles from this genre and make our display relate to the fame.  We have noticed when we do these special themes, the kids are excited and they gravitate to the titles.  It has to be because the kids are seeing the front of the books. 

We are seeing the success of our program and will certainly continue it!

Blind date with a book, part 2

I posted recently that we were going to do Blind date with a Book in the library.  I had absolutely no idea how AMAZING it was going to be!  We finally came back to school two days ago.  We had wrapped books last week before the big storm hit, since we knew it was coming.   We started with maybe 10 or 12 titles that we were using as new releases that week.  Since Monday, we have already wrapped 20 more books.

We have been keeping track of our circulation statistics and we have checked out 18 books so far.  Some of you might be saying, 18 books, that isn't too many, but, we are a district of 200 7th-12th graders with only about 45 to 60 permitted to visit the library on any given day.   I have never, in my four years in the library seen such an overwhelming response to a theme!  It is amazing.

I have learned a few things with the concept. First of all, no series books unless it was book one.  A few of the books we grabbed were series books and some of them were later titles.  (Can't read a series if you haven't seen book one.)  Secondly, label books that are strictly female.  We had about five boys refuse to get books because they were afraid to get a girl book, so we labeled them as "Great guy reads" or Great Book for Boys too! We will see how much we get tomorrow!

I may have to rethink this and do another Blind topic (Don't judge a book by its cover or something like that!)

Overall, this is by far the best monthly promotion I have done. The students are really enjoying it and I am so excited to see it work.  Anyone out there thinking about a unique way to get kids reading something new, definitely consider doing a Blind Date with a Book theme.

Blind date with a book

Anyone who has looked at Bulletin Board displays on Pinterest has seen the Blind Date with a book display featuring a fancy board with some text and then a stack of books covered with paper to unwrap after checkout.   We decided to jump on the band wagon and do that theme for the month of February.  We added a little bit of a twist, all the titles we wrapped are new releases that have never made it to the shelves. We thought it would be a fun way to get some new titles out there in a fun way.

We are working to make the board setup. (The three cancelations last week have made it impossible to complete a bulletin board, so I have no photos to share, just my thoughts)  We wrote the call number on the books and will manually check them out.   We are telling students they have to read at least 30 pages of the book before they return them so they can give them a chance. We are hoping to see a few people turned to a new genre or author.

We are hoping the fancy twist on checkout will make it a fun month for our students and readers.

An update on my library

In February of 2012, I started shifting the library from a traditional, Dewey Centered system to a more genre specific place.  After three semesters of research, one box of labels and a lot of tape, we are done.  We now have categories with the Dewey built in. Each fiction book has been placed in a genre section, categorized in our system with all of the other categories the titles fit into included. (We discovered some books covered many categories, but there was always just one that fit best, so we placed it there and then tagged other categories as well.)

For our non fiction books, each has a specific category label with a letter tag.  We sort them by their old fashioned Dewey number or alphabetically, depending on the category. (Geography, for example is sorted alphabetically by country instead of Dewey- mainly because a lot of our Dewey tags were all over the planet and didn't make sense.)  We also redid the layout of the library to assure more visibility and provide students more spaces to work, socialize, and research.

We moved a lot of furniture.  I spent several extra days in this summer shifting shelving units and carts of books.  Thank goodness we had a few rainy days and the college boy hired to mow was stuck inside, as he was my knight in shining armor, moving books, cases, and shelves from one spot to the next.

I reorganized tables so we have small learning pods now where kids can work together in small groups.  I still have my information areas as well.  Two televisions (which I won with a grant) play all day in areas where kids sit and hang out. We have our coffee shop running daily from 7:30-2 serving drinks and snacks.  Kids come in, buy a drink and lounge in our social zone or at a table where they can work and drink drinks.

We are a 1:1 school, but I placed a few desktop computers in random spots so kids can do work.  I envision a book trailer challenge happening or booktalk videos. I want the space to be for the kids.  I want the kids to come to the library and enjoy their time and not feel like it is a chore to be there.  I want the library to be the center of the school, as it should be!

More about our Genre Based library

Y'all are probably tired of my discussion about the genre based library and I promise, I am about done.  I just wanted to show everyone what we decided to do with our History books.   If everyone elses' library is like mine, the History section takes up most of your non fiction.  Most of the teachers and kids who come in to use bound resources want history books. We decided to make the search easier.

Aside from adding categories to our books, as many of you are hearing me talk about a lot, we decided to also include a time stamp.   We made color coded labels for different eras.  Our era decision was based on the number of books we had.  For example, We have a lot of books that cover the decades in the 1900s but a lot less that cover the era before Christ, so, we mixed a lot of years.  We are labeling each book with the color coded labels (we just used an address label template, filled each label with a lot of text and printed it on colored paper).   When kids come in looking for a specific era, we can share the color coded label with them and say... look for this label.   If they come in looking for a specific situation (like the Revolutionary War) we can guide them to that specific area.

Yes, it took a lot of time.  Yes, it took a lot of energy and brainstorming.  Yes, I have gotten some slack from veteran teachers and librarians who think Dewey is God.  Yes, I have people questioning what I have done.  I don't care. Because it my eyes, I am doing this for kids and for that, it is worth it.

An update on the Genre Shift/ Book Store Model

I decided to take a few minutes this week and update my readers about the Book Store Model/ Genrefication we are doing in my school library.  We are about 60 percent done with the non fiction section and I am already seeing a lot of benefits from the change. I am also seeing a lot of criticism.  Justifiably, I did this to help kids.  When a student comes to the media center, they need information and they need it fast. They are no longer given time with the Common Core Standards and the many assessments they need to do each year to spend hours in the media center roaming the stacks looking for books.  They also aren't effectively trained to use the catalog because doing so with a whole class setting doesn't happen. There just isn't enough time.  So we decided to move away from the classical setup of a library and shift ourselves into the new millennium.  A place where patrons can find things easier and staff can be more organized.  We have spent a lot of time talking and planning.  We are also spending a lot of time walking through the library and physically observing the things we have.  I am finding on a frequent basis that our collection is lacking and we are in need of newer things. I am also learning about what our kids are needing.

My critics feel I am not teaching kids the necessary library skills.  They comment that I am taking the lazy way out of running a library.  I disagree. Schools today don't have time to teach library skills the way they used to.  I get maybe five minutes per class to show them skills because the Common Core Standards require so much to get done.  I do a lot of one on one or very small group training.  It isn't uncommon to walk into the library and see two or three kids looking over my shoulder taking notes about a database or about the catalog.  Or, me making a quick training video and sending it them on email so they can learn it on their own. I am not lazy about this, I am efficient. I am not avoiding teaching them library skills, they learn skills, they just don't look for numbers developed 110 years ago, they look for categories.   When they leave my school, go to college or to the real world, they will do the same thing they do here, ask a librarian.  I hear adults at the public library asking for help all the time, how is my way any different?

Since I started this implementation, the kids are checking out Non-Fiction titles they never even glanced at before.  We label each section with a different sticker.  The kids see the sticker and it pops out at them.  They are pulling things based on what they see. They are reading books now that haven't been checked out in 5 or 6 years because of the location; the genre; or the area they see it. It is AWESOME!  If you are a school librarian and finding kids not using the library because there is no time in the day or because their teachers are rushing them in and out to meet the standards, look into it.  It is an awful lot of work, but the end result is so rewarding!

I am always willing to answer questions about the process.  I have been trying to establish a photo log of the process as well.  You can see my genre library dropbox and get an idea of how things are being developed as well as some ideas of the process we take.  Feel free to borrow ideas and email me if you ever have questions.

Because of Thanksgiving and the fact that Friday, I am taking a much deserved rest and shopping, I will not have a second post this week.  Look for more CLEAR posts after the holiday.

Genre shifting the library

About two months ago, (Feb, 2012) we decided to make the entire library genre based.  We began by labeling all of our books with 40 different genre stickers.  We scanned each book, found its genre and created a sublocation for each.  We also scanned the subject headings and started a category search with our catalog.   Friday April 27, we started moving the books.

We also made a bulletin board showing the kids the change.   Each section has a poster identifying the genre and labeling some of the words that describe it.




 


We also have two cases of old yearbooks that never sold and we are wrapping those with colored paper and contact paper and attaching the labels to the spine to make markers.  The kids will have so much luck finding things.  We are certain there will be success. We are also hoping some of our kids see books in different genre and attempt to read them.  Maybe we can open them up to a new type of category to like!


About two weeks ago, we completed the general fiction section, ended up weeding a slew of books that were falling apart or outdated and started working on the biography section.  We decided to include biographies in this structure becaus so many of our assigned research papers are based on people and we wanted to make the entire process easier for our kids.  We wanted them to be able to go to a section, grab their books and go.

As of this moment, the students have caught on that the books have stickers on them.  When someone comes in asking for a genre, I tell them the sticker to look for and they walk the stacks.  Soon, they will be able to look in one area for a title.

We are placing the genre signs at the end of each shelving area.  We hope it helps the kids identify books that have the labels.